chuckle

This would have been funny if it had happened to anyone other than me (OK, fine, it did happen to me and I was laughing quietly to myself about 10 minutes later). Alex's behavior has been appalling for the last few weeks (long story, not relevant). So today she was in the stroller and told me she was hungry. I gave her 1/2 of her PB&J sandwich. She ate some, then proceeded to rub the rest of it all over her hair! Needless to say, even if it weren't a bath night already, it would be.

more details

Terry is, thankfully, back in Spb. His one week of training in Budapest became about 4 days then an almost-no-notice trip back to the USA for his grandmother's unexpected death/funeral. As fabulous Vonage gives me free calls to Hungary, I was the conduit between his family and him to figure out details and arrangements.

This one will probably get a bit whiny as it was an almost intolerable 10 days without Terry. First, he left the same day my father did, so we'd had no real opportunity to manage household things in the week beforehand. Second, Petersburg had a record heat wave that began right around the time my dad hit town. Being "record" means that it was way hotter than it had EVER been at least for such an extended period. So, the fact nobody had a/c made sense, but didn't make it tolerable. The kids couldn't sleep well and were cranky. Zoltan decided to go on a bottle strike, I wasn't making enough milk for him, so he got almost dangerously dehydrated. This did nothing good for his mood and really he spent most of the days screaming. Alex was further miserable because she really noticed Terry's absence and punished me (as the only one around) because she missed him and he wasn't here. It was almost comical when she demanded Grammy read her the books when we video chatted, and when Terry started to read the 4th book she said she wanted someone else to read it. I was so grateful when she decided to forgive him upon the moment of seeing him, rather than spend days being miffed. I even had help most days for at least a half day - but the kids were so miserable I think I would have needed 3 people all day to manage.

Oh, and Zoltan cut tooth #6 during this time too.

Next update will be about fun stuff we did when my dad visited

overview update

In the last month:
- Alex finished preschool until September
- Zoltan started crawling like a fiend and cut 4 teeth
- I got a job offer at the consulate (haven't started yet)
- My father visited for a week
- Terry left for a week of training the same day my father left
- Petersburg got record high temperatures. It is worth noting almost nobody here has air con, including us. Hot children are miserable. Hot babies are worse

I have lots to write about between the places we went with my dad and lessons learned on the travel front (from previous post). They will have to wait until Terry's return.

welcome home

After three too-short weeks back in the USA, during which we saw my "little" nephew get Bar Mitzvah'd and got three whole days at the cabin, we are back home. One thing I say more emphatically every time we travel - it sucks with little kids. Just sucky-suck sucks. Alex is the new superstar, thanks to the Dramamine that I administer unapologetically - this was the first long haul she did not get sick after, due to getting some shut-eye for once. Zoltan, however, brings us back to hellish reality. The upshot is - no more long hauls until Congress makes us return to the USA in a year.

So we return to our home and ... wait for it .... burst pipes, puddle-y bathrooms, 3 inches of water in the basement and the musty smell of mold. AND the next day, when we really wanted to open all the windows are air things out, we had to have our windows closed all day because of cleaning the outside of the building. At least it isn't our problem to fix, GSO came on Tuesday, found and fixed the leak (an upstairs neighbor's apartment got some demo for that) and put stand fans in our bathroom to try to dry it out so they can seal the wall back up. We're still showering in the guest bathroom because there's a home in the wall in ours, and the back of the apartment is still a bit musty, but all in all I can't really complain. And it is wonderful that Terry didn't have to be the one scouting through the wall looking for leaks and cutting and fitting new pipe.

It took a good week to recover but assuming good weather our adventures will resume this weekend. And now that Terry's helped me set up so I can email my posts, there will be more blog activity. It's sad how many thing we've done this spring that didn't get recorded and now nothing but the fact that the experience happened is in our memories, but such is life.

Tavrichesky Park is Open!!

Tavrichesky Park is where Alex and I spent most of our waking hours last summer. It closes for a month or two in spring when things get really muddy and sloppy, and re-opens around May 1. This weekend the weather has been beautiful (in between the rainstorms, which occurred 3 separate times yesterday, interspersed with hot bright sunshine)

Yelagin Island

We went to Yelagin for the first but far from last time with some friends last weekend. What a treat! It is a car-free park, full of trees and grassy areas and a petting zoo, cafes and fresh air. Alex loved picking weeds to feed the sheep and next time we'll remember to bring bread for the birds. We even ran into some new friends who live a few blocks away ... and we're totally envious of such a great location (although of course we also like being walking distance to downtown Piter, so I guess you win some, lose some).

Here's the wiki entry, which does not do justice to the experience.

Russian Medicine

When you mention "mastitis" to a woman who has ever breastfed, it's like talking to a man about someone getting kicked in the groin - to a one, the women cross their arms over their chest and wince. And for good reason.

I of course had to get to the bad part at night, and the night before a holiday at that. I managed the night and in the morning went about finding a doctor as I knew I needed antibiotics. It was comical when the Russian doc tried to communicate with me before the English speaking nurse came in. When he finally decided to agree with me that yes it's mastitis he "prescribed" in addition to the antibiotic the following practice: soak a cloth in vodka, completely cover the affected breast with it, cover that with plastic and wrap it all up in a scarf. Leave it on for 30 minutes 2x a day. They even did a treatment on me before I left the clinic. The 'net only talked about alternating cold and warm compresses .... but you know, there's a million uses for vodka!

Our babysitter also suggested leeches. I planned to be entertained by that suggestion too but then Terry told me there is a resurgence in the medical use of leeches.

Only in Russia

I drove to get Alex from preschool the other day to see how bad it is. Took longer to drive than it normally does to walk, not a big surprise. The big surprise was on my return, a car was stopped in the middle of the road so we were routed onto the sidewalk for about 1/2 block til we got to the corner. It was actually a part of the sidewalk with a really steep curb so I wasn't sure our little Corolla would make it, but it did.

I've gone native

We've had a heat wave in Piter - it's been in the 20s Fahrenheit. We were going over to a friend's house, driving. We'd go from our front door to the car, which was parked right outside, and we'd park at our friends' lot right at their building. Maybe 2 minutes outside at each end for the kids. I asked Terry if he thought we needed to put Alex in her full snowsuit. He looked at me incredulously, then asked if I were in Mass. would I have put her in a snowsuit. I thought he meant when I was growing up so I said of course not, then do we want her to wear a jacket that goes with a snowsuit or her jacket that's just a jacket. He got very confused because he'd meant he thought there was no way I'd leave Alex without a snowsuit if it were that temp when we were home 2 months ago.
20 Fahrenheit is mild weather. I usually have my coat open at that temp (hat only because I don't have only-ear warmers anymore). I wonder how summer's going to hit me?

They know their smetana

The Russian word for sour cream is CMETAHA (pron. smetana). The different varieties can take up a whole shelf in the little produkty. CMETAHA comes in different cream percents, we generally get either 15% or 20% but there are varieties with as little as 5% and one time I accidentally bought the 42%. We ended up mixing that one with 15% to make it more palatable.